AMD introduces Ultra-Low Power Embedded Fusion APU G-Series

AMD yesterday announced two new G-series Fusion APUs named T40R and T40E based on their Bobcat microarchitecture. The T40R includes a single CPU core clocked at 1GHz, while the T40E comes with two cores at the same frequency. The chips are rated at 5.5W for the single-core and 6.4W for the dual-core version, which is a nice step down from current 9W Ontario chips. While the G-series APUs are designed for embedded applications, these specs would also be favorable for tablets. Since we expect AMD to use the same silicon as for higher power Ontario/Zacate chips, this shows where the Fusion APU products are heading in the future.

Despite the popular belief that AMD is a traditional PC silicon maker, the company is present in a lot of markets

In order to hit these power targets, AMD assumes the use of Low-Voltage DDR3-1066 memory, which is operated at a reduced voltage of 1.35V (compared to standard 1.5V). Since the APU only employs a single-channel memory controller, we are talking about a system bandwidth of 8.3GB/s. The GPU is named Radeon HD 6250 and comes with 80 stream processors clocked at 280MHz and the dedicated UVD3 decoder supporting H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2.

On the platform side, there are two options, the A55E and the A50M platform controller hubs. The fully featured A55E comes with four PCIe lanes, legacy PCI support, a Gigabit Ethernet MAC, RAID 0/1/5/10 support, six SATA 6Gbps ports and14 USB 2.0 ports. The A50M is stripped of the legacy PCI, Gigabit LAN and RAID features. The APU connects to the PCH via an interface dubbed Unified Media Interface, which is based on four PCIe 2.0 lanes. The PCHs come in a lidless FC-BGA package.

According to AMD, the APUs can be used for passively cooled embedded systems like digital signage, kiosks, mobile industrial devices and whatever customers may come up with. Initial design wins include an industrial mobile device from Amtek, a Pico-ITX single board computer from Axiomtek, a Qseven form factor computer-on-module from datakamp, and a fanless digital signage platform from iBASE.